July uprising protesters who were imprisoned during the uprising last year have demanded a list from the government of those who were incarcerated and also pressed for reforms in the Jail Code.
If then prime minister Sheikh Hasina did not have to flee the country, they either would have been still in jails or killed, former prisoners told a July uprising commemoration programme organised by the law, justice and parliamentary affairs ministry at Bangla Academy on Wednesday afternoon.
Recalling days in jail during the July uprising, Mahadi Hasan, a madrasah student arrested at the time in Motijheel area, said, 鈥楾he jail authority kept me almost naked for seven days. I wore a pyjama at that time and that was half.鈥�
He also alleged that he was beaten by the leaders of Awami League鈥檚 student wing Bangladesh Chhatra League and youth wing Juba League at the Motijheel police station in police presence.
He demanded reforms in the Jail Code and listing of the July uprising protesters who were imprisoned.聽
Another imprisoned Ibrahim Kadri, a leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party鈥檚 student body Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, said that he was mercilessly beaten by then New Market police officer-in-charge and 12鈥�13 other sub-inspectors.
Protesters also demanded withdrawal of false cases filed against them for participating in the uprising.
Jatiya Nagorik Party member secretary Akther Hossen said that the police picked him up during the Ghayebana Janaza on the Dhaka university campus at about 2:30pm on July 17, 2024, and framed him in a case for crude bomb explosion that happened two hours later.
鈥業 was taken to a condemned cell where five to six inmates were huddled into a space for one,鈥� he said, adding that his family was prevented from contacting him at the jail gate.
Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami secretary general Mia Golam Parwar urged the interim government to ensure reforms in the police and Jail Code, saying that no political government would do this in the coming days.
鈥楶reviously, I could talk three minutes with my family by spending Tk 100 in jail. But, I couldn鈥檛 talk to my family when I was jailed during the July uprising,鈥� he added.
Law adviser Asif Nazrul promised that the government would reform the Jail Code which would be implemented by the next political government.聽
Environment, forest and climate change adviser Syeda Rizwana Hasan remarked that the whole country was in prison during the time of Sheikh Hasina鈥檚 autocratic rule.聽聽
Gana Odhikhar Parishad faction Nurul Haque Nur recalled the days of torture in the Dhaka Metropolitan Police Detective Branch office on the capital鈥檚 Mintoo Road. Amar Bangladesh Party chairman Mojibur Rahman Monju, among others, also spoke at the event.
